Lowshift by Therese

ODG220: Therese / Lowshift

The sound and musical pieces that make up Lowshift were specially designed for an event named Esperiancia Society Mall in 2022. Good luck finding any trace of it on social media: there's almost none. This is intentional. Therese likes mystery, a certain discretion, and covering tracks.

Thus, Lowshift is said to belong to the Haunted Dark-Pop genre. However, upon listening to the work and searching for a flattering comparison, it's mid-80s Coil that first comes to mind. Haunted, agreed, then. Dark too, although... Pop, however, remains to be seen. Rest assured, Lowshift is nevertheless significantly less scabrous than what the British band offered at the time. And above all, much more feminine.

Behind the idea of Therese, presented as a synthetic entity with two brains, we indeed find Éliane Blaise (aka æfv) and Emmanuelle de Héricourt (EdH). On Low Shift, the duo faithfully recreated their 2022 live performance, recording it under conditions identical to the original show. It's a sonic journey, ranging from darkly contemplative passages to more melodic, even cheerful compositions.

After training with Chris Watson, the undisputed Master of field recording, Éliane Blaise began releasing her compositions in 2013. Since then, she has released several records and developed a plethora of sound installations.

Among her most notable projects are Drowned Mermaids (2020) on the Nostalgie de la Boue label, with profits donated to AIDS charities; as well as Edjmal Moodegi (2023) on MMLI. She has also composed electronic pieces related to the Planet Energy project by Yann Toma, who is both an artist and an observer at the UN.

With Elise Pierre, Emmanuelle de Héricourt co-founded the Lentonia Records label in 2008, dedicated to women in music production. Her first record, Morgen, was released in 2003 on the Intikrec label in Japan. Her latest album, Doomed Alizé, dates from 2022, on the Powdered Hearts label.

In the meantime, she has continuously produced musical works and sound installations, including the "poste electro" (electro station) at the Philharmonie de Paris. The most recent, Vacuum (2025), in which Éliane Blaise also participated, is a virtual reality experience inviting the public to create hybrid sound monsters.

Ready for the sound world of Therese? Immediate boarding.

The release is a collaboration between Cheap Satanism records for the physical and Off for the digital.

https://www.cheapsatanism.com/

Off is a Belgian based label founded by Alain Lefebvre in 2007. You can visit the full site at:
https://off-recordlabel.blogspot.com

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